Tech Diplomacy News: AI, geopolitics, and power are reshaping the world
| News Roundup The Iran conflict is becoming a real-world test of AI-driven warfare, with the U.S. military using AI systems to select targets and speed up strike decisions, compressing decision-making timelines from days to minutes. At the same time, both sides are deploying AI in information warfare, turning the conflict into both a physical and digital battlefield. Analysts say this marks an early shift toward faster, more automated wars, but raises major concerns about reduced human oversight and accountability, Rafi Schwartz reports for The Week. UNESCO and UNDP are rolling out a global training initiative to help governments build rights-based data governance systems as a foundation for AI. The program brings policymakers from across Africa and Asia to turn high-level principles into practical frameworks for managing data in areas like health, digital identity, and social services. The UN’s new AI panel is tasked with guiding global AI governance, and recently started work on a global study examining how AI is reshaping key areas like employment, healthcare, and governance. However, there are concerns the panel is too broad and lacks focus, with experts warning it could become politicized, fragmented across competing national models, or ultimately produce recommendations with little real impact, Hugh Dugan writes for Fair Observer. Global AI governance is effectively stalled, with a host of issues like geopolitical rivalry and the dominance of private tech companies making coordination nearly impossible under current conditions. A recent research paper from Chatham House considers real progress may only come after a major AI-related crisis forces governments and companies to cooperate, meaning the focus now is on preparing frameworks and institutions in advance for that moment. Read the March global digital policy roundup from Tech Policy Press here. North America U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent cyber strategy has “just four pages of substance” and is largely toothless, talking tough about U.S. dominance in cyberspace without naming China, Iran, Russia, or North Korea as threats, even as Chinese hackers sit embedded in U.S. infrastructure and Iran ramps up retaliatory attacks. The strategy leans heavily on offense and private-sector volunteerism, with no real plan behind either. Meanwhile, key cyber leadership roles are empty, CISA has shed a third of its staff, and the State Department’s cyber diplomacy office has been gutted, with several repercussions, Matthew Ferren shares in his write-up for the Council on Foreign Relations. Rising tensions with Iran are pushing U.S. officials to warn that energy infrastructure is becoming a prime cyber target, with attacks already increasing and systems vulnerable due to age, scale, and fragmentation. The concern isn’t hypothetical anymore, with potential ripple effects across everything from healthcare to transport if a major breach succeeds: “U.S. energy infrastructure operators are increasingly subject to heightened cyber risks, and this trend is unlikely to reverse as geopolitical conflict intensifies,” Leslie Abrahams and Lauryn Williams write for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Two back-to-back U.S. verdicts against Meta and YouTube are starting to reshape how courts treat social media harm, especially for children, with juries finding their platform design contributed to addiction and mental health damage. However, real impact will depend on whether courts force structural changes like age checks or algorithm redesign, as “A financial penalty does not rewrite a single line of code, remove an algorithm or place a safety engineer in a role that was eliminated to protect a quarterly earnings report,” Carolina Rossini writes for The Conversation. Crypto exchange Kraken has quietly filed for a U.S. IPO, even after shelving plans weeks earlier during a market downturn that slashed its valuation. The company is now worth about 13.3 billion USD, down sharply from 20 billion USD last year, reflecting the broader “crypto winter” that dragged bitcoin far below its peak. The move shows major crypto firms are trying to time a comeback, balancing weak recent conditions with optimism that the market is stabilizing. AI is beginning to reshape the tech industry from the inside, with Silicon Valley becoming the first real test case of what automation does to white-collar work. Layoffs are accelerating as companies shift strategy, cutting tens of thousands of roles while pouring money into AI, with some firms explicitly saying job cuts are funding their AI buildout. At the same time, tools that can write code are letting companies operate with smaller, flatter teams, changing what kinds of workers they actually need. The sector is now in “massive, simultaneous experimentation,” with no clear model yet replacing the old one, Kalley Huang reports for The New York Times. Canada’s debate over digital sovereignty is shifting from trying to cut off foreign tech to figuring out how to stay connected without losing control, especially as reliance on U.S. cloud providers remains unavoidable. IBM Canada’s CTO Manav Gupta believes the old idea of keeping data strictly within national borders is too simplistic and that “sovereignty does not equal solitude,” something often said by AI Minister Evan Solomon, warning full independence just isn’t realistic in a global digital system. This comes as “governments have been struggling with how to make sure critical digital systems aren’t vulnerable to a sudden presidential whim to shut them down or crack them open and see what Canadian secrets they might contain,” David Reevely writes for The Logic. Africa African governments have spent over 2 billion USD on AI-powered surveillance systems, much of it backed by Chinese companies and financing, tying infrastructure development closely to Beijing’s tech ecosystem. Ranging from facial recognition to smart cameras, these systems are expanding quickly, but in many countries are being rolled out without strong legal safeguards or oversight. This raises concerns about how the tech could be used, especially in monitoring activists or political dissent, across a growing surveillance landscape where capability is advancing faster than regulation. South Africa has unveiled a draft national AI policy attempting to accelerate adoption while building a full governance system around it. The plan includes new institutions like a National AI Commission and an AI Ethics Board, alongside incentives such as tax breaks and grants to pull in private investment and support local startups. At the same time, it puts heavy emphasis on infrastructure, from supercomputing to data centers, as the foundation for becoming a continental AI leader, Nqobile Dludla reports for Reuters. Across Africa, companies are rolling out AI fast despite lagging security, creating what researchers call one of the biggest emerging business risks in the region. Organizations are facing over 3k cyberattacks per week on average, the highest globally, while deploying generative and agentic AI systems with little oversight. In many cases, employees are using multiple AI tools at once, creating “shadow AI” environments that traditional security systems can’t even see. Ghana has launched a new version of its national ID card that doubles as a payment system, aiming to merge identity and everyday transactions into one platform. The “Ghana Card” can now be used for payments as well as identification, a move designed to expand financial inclusion and bring more people into the formal economy. By linking identity directly to payments, the government is trying to simplify access to services and reduce reliance on global networks like Visa and Mastercard. If it works, it could become a model for other countries trying to leapfrog traditional banking systems and build digital economies from the ground up, Grace Ashiru writes for Tech In Africa. At GITEX Africa 2026, Chinese company Huawei made a clear play to dominate Africa’s AI market, showcasing “vertical AI” systems tailored for sectors like government, defense, banking and healthcare rather than generic tools. The company is positioning itself as more than just a telecom provider, embedding across infrastructure, cloud, and public-sector partnerships as African governments scale digital systems. Asia India is positioning itself as a global AI data center hub with major incentives for companies like Google and Microsoft, but that push is running into growing resistance from farmers and local communities. Large projects are being accused of environmental risks and heavy subsidies that prioritize foreign tech investment over local livelihoods. The tensions highlight a broader global pattern, where AI infrastructure expansion is colliding with local opposition, even as countries compete to host it, Ananya Bhattacharya writes for Rest of World. Missile and drone attacks linked to the Iran war have disrupted parts of Dubai’s economy, but the city’s tech sector is largely holding steady, with founders and investors treating the instability as temporary rather than structural. For many in the ecosystem, the bet is that the city’s business-friendly environment and track record of bouncing back from crises will outweigh short-term geopolitical risk. Japan is pouring 4 billion USD into chipmaker Rapidus as it races to rebuild domestic semiconductor capacity and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains. The funding brings total government R&D support to over 2.3 trillion yen, backing Rapidus’ push to develop cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips and begin mass production by 2027. The scale of investment shows how seriously governments are treating semiconductors as strategic infrastructure, not just another industry, Reuters reports. Tesla claims its Shanghai Gigafactory could eventually produce humanoid robots, signaling a shift beyond electric vehicles into AI-driven robotics manufacturing. Chinese firms are already pushing aggressively into humanoid robotics, and Tesla may eye robots, not cars, as a major growth engine. At the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Future of Work Conference in Bangkok this week, a panel sought to tackle how AI and digital systems are reshaping supply chains across Southeast Asia. Speakers focused on how supply chains are no longer just physical networks but digital ecosystems driven by data and algorithms, which makes governance a key issue. The discussion also highlighted that while digital infrastructure is advancing, smaller firms and workers risk being left behind unless skills training, regulation, and regional cooperation catch up with the pace of technological change. OpenClaw, an autonomous AI agent platform often dubbed the “next ChatGPT,” is gaining momentum globally, with a recent major event in Tokyo drawing strong interest from developers and businesses. South Korean startup DeepX is preparing a domestic IPO, with CEO Lokwon Kim saying the company could also pursue a U.S. listing later as it finishes its current funding round. The firm makes on-device AI chips and already partners with major players like Hyundai Motor and Baidu, signaling its push to compete in the growing edge AI market. The move demonstrates how smaller chip firms are trying to carve out space in a market dominated by giants like Nvidia, especially by targeting specialized uses such as robotics and automotive AI. Europe U.K. regulators are being urged to investigate politician Nigel Farage after he helped promote a 2 million GBP Bitcoin purchase tied to a company he has a financial stake in, raising concerns about potential market influence and conflicts of interest. The controversy highlights growing anxiety over how political figures engage with crypto markets, especially as the nation considers tighter rules on digital assets and political donations. A Dutch court has ordered X and its chatbot Grok to stop generating non-consensual sexual imagery, including deepfake abuse content, with fines of 100k Euros per day if they fail to comply. The ruling makes clear platforms can’t shift blame to users, with the court saying companies designing these systems are responsible for preventing harm, a sign Europe is starting to draw harder legal lines around generative AI, Ramsha Jahangir writes for Tech Policy Press. France is emerging as a serious contender in the global quantum computing race, with startups developing new approaches to reduce errors and scale the technology faster than traditional methods. With strong research talent, government backing, and multiple competing firms, Europe largely sees quantum as a rare chance to compete with U.S. and Chinese tech dominance, although funding and scaling remain the biggest hurdles. Italy’s courts are putting more pressure on Big Tech, with a Milan judge allowing a class action against Meta over a massive Facebook data scraping breach that exposed around 533 million users globally. The case could affect up to 35 million users in Italy alone and centers on whether Meta failed to protect personal data under EU GDPR rules. Meta pushed back, calling it a “procedural ruling only” and saying it’s confident the case will be dismissed, but the fact it’s moving forward signals courts are increasingly willing to test Big Tech’s responsibilities in Europe. EU lawmakers are warning that opening talks with Washington on digital rules could undermine Europe’s landmark tech laws, with MEP Alexandra Geese calling it a “fatal decision for our companies and our democracy.” Critics argue the move risks letting U.S. pressure shape enforcement of laws like the Digital Services Act, raising fears that Europe’s push for tech sovereignty could be weakened at a moment of growing geopolitical tensions, Milena Wälde reports for Politico Europe. Russia’s expanding internet shutdowns are being framed as security measures, but are lining up with new laws giving regulators centralized control over internet infrastructure, alongside moves like “whitelisted” websites and pressure to use state-backed apps linked to the FSB, Russia’s security agency. Social platforms including Instagram, YouTube and Telegram are being restricted or blocked, cutting off access to independent information. The shutdowns are “not merely reactive responses to security threats,” but part of a broader push toward digital isolation, Natalya Kovaleva writes for Chatham House. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says Greece will ban social media for under-15s from next year, calling out the “addictive design” of platforms and linking them to rising anxiety and sleep problems among young people. The plan includes stricter age checks and could scale to the EU level, and is part of a wider global policy trend regarding the regulation of youths’ online activities. France is also pushing the EU toward a coordinated ban on social media for under-15s, with President Emmanuel Macron convening leaders across Europe to align policy and progress bloc-wide rules. Latin America UNESCO is launching a regional observatory to assist Latin American and Caribbean countries with integrating AI into their education systems, focusing on policy, research, and capacity building. The platform will bring together governments, universities, and tech actors to guide how AI is used in teaching and administration. Brazil has cut import taxes on nearly 1k tech and medical products, but deliberately left graphics processing units off the list, a problem for the AI and data center industry which relies on them for everything from model training to server infrastructure. Industry players say the tariffs make Brazil more expensive and less competitive for AI investment, right as the global race for data center capacity heats up. Mexico’s UNAM is moving beyond research into building quantum and semiconductor hardware, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign tech and strengthen its role in global supply chains. Through its National Nanofabrication Laboratory, the university is producing components like transistors, photonic circuits, and thin films, with real applications in telecoms, computing, and renewable energy. Overall, it’s a push for tech sovereignty, positioning Mexico not just as a user of advanced systems but as a builder of the hardware behind them, Diego Valverde reports for Mexico Business News. Latin America is still underweight in global AI investment, making up just 1.12% of spending despite a much larger share of global GDP. However, analysts say that gap actually highlights room for growth, with the region starting to compete by hosting collaborations between universities, startups, and governments, and building scalable AI solutions around real local problems like agriculture and finance. At HackConRD 2026 hosted in the Dominican Republic, cybersecurity expert Carlos Polop highlighted how AI can improve both efficiency and depth of security work, even helping identify complex issues like potential zero-day exploits. As Polop explained through practical examples, these tools are making it easier for professionals to “significantly improve” both the quality and quantity of vulnerabilities they find, indicating AI isn’t just a threat in cybersecurity, but is becoming a core tool for defenders as well. Oceania New research indicates women and girls in the Pacific are increasingly facing digital abuse, with technologies like smartphones, social media, and AI-generated deepfakes being used to exploit and threaten them. Practitioners across nine Pacific nations reported cases where perpetrators monitor devices, share or threaten intimate images, and create fake sexual content using AI to extort victims. A particularly concerning trend is the rise of deepfake abuse, with over a quarter of respondents saying it happens “often,” highlighting how AI is amplifying existing gender-based violence. The study also found major barriers to support, including cultural stigma and weak law enforcement responses, meaning many victims are left without protection even as the problem grows. Scientists and conservationists are warning that using AI to speed up environmental approvals in Australia could cause serious harm, with a proposal backed by the Minerals Council outlining the use of AI to help process mining applications faster. Critics say that risks cutting corners on complex ecological assessments, arguing the danger isn’t just technical but environmental, with faster approvals potentially pushing already threatened species closer to extinction if decisions rely too heavily on flawed or incomplete data, Graham Readfearn writes for The Guardian. A landmark U.S. jury ruling against Meta and YouTube is now triggering legal interest in Australia. Law firms are exploring similar cases over claims platforms were deliberately designed to be addictive and harmful to young users, now assessing whether local laws could support comparable lawsuits. Experts say the decision reflects a deeper shift in responsibility, moving blame away from users and toward platform design itself, including features like infinite scroll and constant notifications described as “the architecture of addiction.” The ruling could accelerate regulation in Australia, where the government is already considering a digital duty of care that would force platforms to prevent harm before it happens. Anthropic is signing a deal with the Australian government to share AI economic data and collaborate on safety testing, an agreement that will see the company share insights on model capabilities and risks, while also working with universities and investing in local data centers and energy infrastructure. CEO Dario Amodei called Australia “a natural partner for responsible AI development,” pointing to its growing focus on safety despite lacking dedicated AI laws. New Zealand’s tech sector is warning that the country’s economic future is at risk without a clear, long-term strategy, with Tech New Zealand CEO Graeme Muller stating, “our productivity is lagging, our talent is departing, and our infrastructure deficit is growing.” As the sector pushes for a bipartisan plan to scale exports, the industry argues that with the right support, tech could become the country’s largest export and a major driver of high-value jobs, Nona Pelletier reports for RNZ. |
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